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August 26, 2006 | 
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A Periodic Newsletter for the Members of the Sarasota PC User Group and the World!!
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ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE AND DISK DEFRAGMENTATION
Readers,
The following is a "White Paper" written by Executive Software, the makers of Diskeeper. Over recent months we've read about the need & benefits, or lack thereof to defrag our hard drives. While this article is a bit dated I believe in its validity today which is why I chose to include it in this edition of "Bytes"
Dave
For years, we’ve received anecdotal data from Diskeeper
® customers that one of the benefits of using Diskeeper to handle file and free space fragmentation on their desktop systems was a significant reduction in the time it takes to conduct virus scans.
With virus attacks rippling through the internet—the quick succession of recent worm attacks like Sobig, Blaster, and the Welchia worm outbreaks—has created a security environment of unprecedented intensity and has increased the importance of a fast virus scan capability on desktop systems as part of an organization’s overall security strategy.At the request of one of our enterprise customers, Executive Software recently did a study of the effects of disk fragmentation on virus scan time to verify and measure the magnitude of virus scanning speed improvement.
Test Environment
We tested the top four anti-virus products that collectively represent about 90% of the U.S. volume license market for anti-virus software:
Symantec Antivirus 2003
McAfee Pro 7.02
Trend Micro PC-cillin 10.03
Panda Titanium Antivirus 2004When a defragmenter is not regularly run, the systems will build up significant levels of fragmentation. The requested test scenario was one where the levels of fragmentation should be consistent with a desktop that is not regularly defragmented and the hardware should represent desktops that might have been purchased in the last 6 months, meaning a P4 processor or equivalent and 256 MB of RAM or greater. The mix of files on the test partition should include MS Office and other typical popular applications and file types.
The test cases were saved as binary images so that the tests could be repeated.
We set up two typical corporate desktop systems as follows:
Desktop #1:
Windows 2000 Professional SP3, 80GB Hard Drive, 512 Ram, AMD Athlon 2700+
Test partition: 20GB 114,291 files.
Test partition condition before: 342,283 excess fragments (average 3.99 fragments per file). 60% free space.
Desktop #2:
Windows XP Professional SP1, 80GB Hard Drive, 512 Ram, Intel Pentium 4 2400
Test Partition: 40 GB test partition with 200,001 files.
Test partition condition before: 1,460,850 excess fragments (average 8.30 fragments per file). 35% free space.
Test Procedure
The four top anti-virus software packages were tested in turn, restoring the binary disk image each time. Only the manual virus scan of each product was run, with other system monitoring options turned off in order to minimize timing variables.
Before testing each antivirus product, the disk was restored from the binary image to the fragmented test state described above, and then the virus scan was run and the scan time recorded. The disk was then defragmented using Diskeeper 8.0’s “Maximum Performance” defragmentation method (the default setting). When the defragmentation was complete, the virus scan of the same product was run again, with the new time recorded.
Conclusion
Antivirus Scans are
significantly faster on Desktop systems with regularly defragmented files and free space. As capacity to quickly respond to new anti-virus attacks is a critical component of any organization’s security plan, software that automatically keeps systems defragmented should not be overlooked as the tool that makes fast antivirus scans possible.Executive Software ● 7590 North Glenoaks Boulevard ● Burbank ● California 91504-1052 ● USA
Toll Free 800-829-6468 ● Phone 818-771-1600 ● Fax 818-252-5514 ●
www.executive.com© 2005 Executive Software International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Executive Software, Focused Development of System Management Tools and Diskeeper are registered trademarks or trademarks owned by Executive
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Clicking on Dave will take you to the
"Bits & Bytes"
site where you can listen to the most recent broadcast
The Bits and Bytes Radio Show has a new feature, an Internet Bulletin Board!
It has a section devoted to the radio program, another for Questions and Answers regarding your computer problems, and a section for the User Group.
You do not have to register to visit the board. However, registering will allow you to join the fun and post comments, questions, and opinions with the rest of the listeners and group members. Registering is easy – just click on the word “register” in the upper left-hand portion of the main page of the board, and enter your email address, a user name for the board, and create a password. Shortly thereafter, you will get an email verifying your registration. There is a link to the board on the Bits and Bytes Radio Show website, or you can get to it directly by clicking on this link – Bits and Bytes Bulletin Board
You’ll be able to keep the show alive during the week by continuing discussions on the board, as well as commenting on PC Tips mentioned by Dave, Forrest, and Vinny. In this same manner, we can have topics discussing items mentioned at SPCUG meetings or at SIGS.
If you’ve never been to one of these Web-based Bulletin Boards then part of the fun will be discovering how to move around on the board, opening topics, and posting replies. We even have a section where you can ask questions about “How to do” stuff on the board.
| Dave's Cool Download | |
Bookmark Wizard is a little program with a simple wizard-like interface that generates an HTML page with all/selected links from your Internet Favorites folder. The links in the resulting page are grouped and sorted in ascending order like they are in your Favorites folder. You can specify colors for links and backgrounds, title, caption, font size, Alignment etc., for your page. Also, you can exclude certain folders from being listed. Advanced users are able to edit the entire page template to fully customize it. The resulting web page can be used as a links page on your homepage; you can send it to a friend or use it just as a startup page for your Web browser. Version 2 features: you can now backup your Favorite Links to a single file and also Import them back in again. The Web page that is created by BMW can now be Indented and also can have Folders that actually open and close.
 | Requirements: | | Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, Visual Basic Runtime Module 6.0 |
| Supported OS: | | Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP |
| Supported Browsers: | | IE6, IE7 |
| Uninstaller Provided: | | Yes |
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Here's A Microsoft Word Tip
Some people create all their Microsoft Word documents from the default blank document. Other people use one of the available templates within Word to create pre-designed letters, memos, business cards, certificates, planners and almost any kind of document.
Now, Microsoft has added a huge number of templates for Word and their other Office 2003 products on the Microsoft web site.
While you're running Microsoft Word 2003, click on "File, New". This will open Word's helper menu to pick a new Blank document, XML document, Web page, "From existing document," or several choices for template locations -- and this is where you can find "Templates on Office Online" option.
Or, you can visit the site ahead of time to see the templates and download the ones you want to use. If you're using Word 2003, go to Templates page at Microsoft Office Online.
If you create your own documents, you can save them as templates for future use. Just use the File, Save As function, enter the filename you want to use, and use the "Save as type" pull-down box to select "Document Template (*.dot)".
While Wandering The Web
An Open Letter to Security Vendors
By Michael J. Miller
To: John Thompson, CEO, Symantec
George Samenuk, CEO, McAfee
Eva Chen, CEO, Trend Micro
Laura Yecies, General Manager, Zone Labs
All of you have reason to worry about the prospect of Microsoft entering the security market this summer with a new service called OneCare. But you're focused on the wrong problem. Instead of focusing on Microsoft, you need to take a good hard look at the effectiveness of your own wares. I've talked with a lot of computer users lately, and the conclusion is inescapable: Your products just aren't good enough.
Some of your products don't do a complete job; others are packaged in ways that customers don't understand; parts of some software don't work properly, and other programs are so big that they cause the very problems customers want to avoid.
It starts with marketing. Many of you promote single-solution products—typically your antivirus software—as if they provided enough protection. So people install Norton Antivirus or McAfee VirusScan, or get computers with these products preinstalled, and they think they're protected. Yet we all know that's not true. Most of the threats these days are blended, so people need multiple defenses: antivirus, a firewall, spyware protection, and an antispam program.
True, each one of you now offers suites that cover all the bases. But you haven't clearly told your customers that the standalone solutions aren't enough protection. Even for the most technical of us, running separate programs can lead to conflicts and confusion. And most users don't want the hassle of multiple interfaces.—Continue reading...
I've installed each of your products on at least one of my systems and have had problems with every one of them. Norton Internet Security is bloated and occasionally messes up my machine. When I upgraded it this year, my Web browsers stopped working, and I spent two hours on an Internet chat to get the Registry patch to fix it. The software still sometimes interferes with my Internet access for no apparent reason.
McAfee Internet Security's antivirus and firewall modules have worked well for me, but its antispam module is very slow and inadequate. In addition, the privacy control is very annoying, and it doesn't offer parental filtering.
Trend Micro has all the right tools in the box, but its antispyware component is a major disappointment. One of my children downloaded a Tetris game that came with spyware, and I spent days removing it.
In my testing, ZoneAlarm Security Suite has been the most stable, with good antivirus and antispam modules in addition to its best-in-class firewall, but its antispyware is weak. And many of the people I talk with who have tried ZoneAlarm are confused by its messages. The same goes for Computer Associates' eTrust, which also includes the ZoneAlarm firewall.
Still, each of you continues to believe you'll be able to compete against OneCare because you offer better software. So far we haven't been completely thrilled with the beta versions of OneCare (particularly its antispyware), but Microsoft will continue to improve it. And though many people will avoid a Microsoft add-in because they want an outside vendor, I know others who just trust Microsoft because it makes Windows.
OneCare changes the model to a pure subscription service, something you all like. But you need to do more. All of you have been more active than Microsoft in getting fixes out and alerting customers to security threats. This needs to continue. But you also have to build products that are easier to use, by making their messages and help systems clearer and by making your products work better with the software most people run. And you need to make them easier to keep up to date, perhaps requiring fewer reboots.
Between now and when Vista ships in early 2007, I hope and expect that you'll focus on improving your products so they're more stable, functional, easier to upgrade, and simpler to run. Not only is that the best way to fend off Microsoft, but it's also the best way to make everyone a better computer user.
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© 2006. All Rights Reserved
Last Updated
08/26/2006 09:17 AM
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